Heliatek completes 18 Million Euro in Series C Funding Round, led by Investment Holding AQTON SE

Heliatek GmbH, the world’s leading company in the production and commercialization of organic solar films, has successfully completed its C-Financing round by raising 18 million EUR. This Round was led by AQTON SE, an investment holding of German entrepreneur Stefan Quandt, with participation of all prior investors, Bosch, BASF, Innogy Venture Capital (Innogy Venture Capital is the corporate Venture Capital arm of RWE Innogy), Wellington Partners, eCAPITAL, High-Tech Gruenderfonds and TGFS. Since the foundation of the company in 2006, 46 million EUR have been raised in order to develop the technology, the manufacturing process and now the market entry.

The company succeeded with its innovative approach of organic solar films in a roll-to-roll production process. These HeliaFilms® are being supplied to industrial partners for applications in BIPV – Building Integrated PV- and  Automotive.

These funds come at the time of market entry for Heliatek, which is currently supplying prototypes and pilots to building and construction material companies, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers as well as unique market opportunities.

Dr. Paul-Josef Patt, CEO of eCAPITAL AG, said, “In the last 12 months, Heliatek has made enormous progress as the technology leader in organic solar films, and we are now looking forward to taking the next steps towards commercialization together with AQTON SE.”

“This fresh money will help us to reach our set of operational and sales goals until 2016, including the introduction of transparent HeliaFilm® in production by the middle of next year,” states Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek.

The team around Thibaud Le Séguillon and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer is continuously reaching its milestones in improving efficiency and durability. The company holds the world record of 12% cell efficiency for opaque organic solar cells and announced earlier this year a transparency of up to 40% associated with an efficiency of more than 7%.

About Heliatek
Heliatek was spun off in 2006 from the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Ulm. The company is the leader in the field of Organic Electronics Energy through both its leading edge material development and its proven capability for volume manufacturing. Its business model is to supply custom-designed HeliaFilm® to industrial partners in industries such as building and construction materials, automotive and light architectural structures. Heliatek maintains a total staff of some 75 specialists at its facilities in Dresden and Ulm, Germany.

Investors in Heliatek include leading industrial and financial companies such as BASF, Bosch, Innogy Venture Capital, Wellington Partners, eCAPITAL and AQTON SE. Research and development work, as well as the installation of production technology has been funded by the Free State of Saxony, the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education & Research), projects: LOTsE (03EK3505E), Organic pin-devices 2.1 (03IPT602B), the BMWi (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology) and the European Union 7th framework program project (X10D) under grant agreement No 287818. Heliatek is currently operating its first roll-to-roll manufacturing line in Dresden, Germany.

Contact:
Cornelia Jahnel
Heliatek GmbH
Treidlerstr. 3
01139 Dresden
Tel: +49 351 213 034 421
cornelia.jahnel@heliatek.com
www.heliatek.com

About AQTON SE
AQTON SE is a strategic investment holding wholly owned by German entrepreneur Stefan Quandt. AQTON holds stakes in BMW (car manufacturer), Datacard Corporation (secure ID & card personalization solutions), Gemalto (digital security), SOLARWATT (solar energy solutions) and RHJ International (financial services). As a fourth generation entrepreneur Stefan Quandt follows a long-term investment perspective. More Information: www.aqton.eu

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:

High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Simon Schneider
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel.: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
s.schneider@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de